Afghan troops to train at BraggArmy Times
Tue, 18 Jan 2005 8:50 AM PST
FORT BRAGG, N.C. Up 10,000 members of the 82nd Airborne Division will spread across Fort Bragg to help a unit train at home before deploying to Afghanistan rather than going to the Mojave Desert to prep for duty.

Army drops charges against Fort Riley soldier, for nowPioneer Press
Wed, 19 Jan 2005 7:25 AM PST
TWINSBURG, Ohio - The Army has dropped charges against an Army officer from Fort Riley, Kan., suspected in the fatal shooting of a severely injured 16-year-old Iraqi while it investigates other accusations, the military said Tuesday.

Helicopters must dodge death at all times to complete missionsKnight-Ridder Washington Bureau
Wed, 19 Jan 2005 3:11 AM PST
TAJI, Iraq - The Black Hawk helicopter flew low and fast over the bright lights north of Baghdad, then suddenly the lights were gone. In the darkened cockpit, the two pilots could make out an expanse of date palms through their night-vision goggles.

U.S. soldier helps rebuild IraqPost-Tribune
Wed, 19 Jan 2005 2:32 AM PST
His American military uniform doesn t always guarantee a cheerful greeting. But Capt. Alexander Rasmussen says most of the Iraqi people he works with in Baghdad appreciate what military officers like him are doing to rebuild the country.

Horseman finds peace in war by helping save Saddam's herdThe Charlotte Observer
Tue, 18 Jan 2005 9:35 PM PST
WELCOME, N.C. - Another cardboard box came in the mail Tuesday afternoon, this one carrying a saddle from Texas. Ed Littlefox Copeland opened the new box with his pocketknife, just as he does all the others.

A Hero Heals - Joey's Update 1/19/05

Today was a long day for Joey; it started at 7:30 a.m. with he driving elec. wheel chair and I walking to the hospital from the Mologne House and checking in at ward 67 for his out patient surgery for the aneurysm on his left wrist. We waited in PACU (post anesthsia care unit) until 12:45 p.m. when they came to take him to surgery. MTV was here to film the before and after shots for the documentary that will air in April. Jayme was in Bethesda and was able to get off at 12:30 p.m. due to the snow falling. She had an experience with the ice on the road and couldn't get the truck to go forward. She was on a patch of ice so after 15 minutes and several cars zooming and honking she was able to role backwards and get traction to go forward and arrive safely here at the hospital. About 3:30 p.m. the nurse came to tell us that Joey had not gone to surgery yet. Thus we waited and waited and finally he came to the room at 6:15 p.m. Dr. Gillespie took an artery from his upper left leg and grafted it to his artery in his arm. Hopefully, Joey will feel ok tomorrow and will get rest; he will have to delay therapy. We treked back to the Mologne House in the snow with Joey in his electric chair and got him to his bed at 7:15 p.m. He was very hungry and thirsty so Jayme bought him a subway sandwich as the cafeteria was closed at 6 p.m. This pic below was taken in PACU while Joey was waiting to go to surgery. They had hooked up the IV but had not sedated yet. Joey will have surgery again on Friday, 29th, to remove the metal plate from his left hand. Keep us in your prayers. Thanks for your love and support. Also, I have heard from the Chaplain and Nurse Carolyn by phone from Germany. I plan to visit them late spring or early summer to personally thank them. God Bless!
Love,
Joey, Jayme and Gail

LTC Ryan Sets the Record Straight - A Must Read

All right, I've had enough. I am tired of reading distorted and grossly exaggerated stories from major news organizations about the "failures" in the war in Iraq. "The most trusted name in news" and a long list of others continue to misrepresent the scale of events in Iraq. Print and video journalists are covering only a fraction of the events in Iraq and, more often than not, the events they cover are only negative.

Two blasts rock central Baghdad

Darren Mccollester / Getty Images
Smoke rises from the scene of a massive car bomb that exploded near the Australian Embassy early Wednesday.

NBC News and news services
Updated: 2:06 a.m. ET Jan. 19, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A truck bomb exploded near the Australian Embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday, and a half-hour later a car bomb shook a police station also in the Iraqi capital, with the blasts killing a total of eight people, police and officials said.

A third, smaller explosion was heard and smoke was seen rising near the Green Zone, the heavily fortified compound housing the U.S. Embassy and Iraq’s interim government offices.

The truck bomb exploded near the Australian Embassy’s cement blast barriers around 7 a.m. in a blast that rocked the center of the city. U.S. troops and tanks sealed off the area, which was strewn with flaming wreckage.

An Iraqi guard at the nearby Australian ambassador’s residence said a man drove a truck cab, without a trailer, to the cement barriers in front of the embassy, then fled in another car that was waiting for him.

The truck cab then exploded, said the guard, who only identified himself as Hassan.

In the Australian capital, Canberra, acting foreign minister Philip Ruddock told reporters said there was no evidence that the embassy itself was targeted.

“There is no indication at this stage that the embassy was specifically being targeted,” Ruddock said.

“Obviously in relation to these matters you continue to assess the situation and examine the evidence," he said.

No embassy staff or Australian troops were injured in the incident, Ruddock said.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said two people were killed and four were wounded. The blast destroyed the vehicle and left its twisted wreckage in flames.

The embassy is located in Baghdad’s central Jadiriyah neighborhood.

The second blast was caused by another car bomb that targeted a police station in Baghdad’s eastern Elwiyah neighborhood, police Lt. Nateq Ahmed said. He gave no further details.

An Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press six people were killed and several others wounded in that explosion.

Back in action
The security situation in Iraq is so critical now, NBC News has learned, that the Iraqi interior ministry has recalled two full battalions — about 2,000 men — from Saddam Hussein’s army, the same army the United States dissolved. All of them are retrained as special police to battle terrorism expected at polling stations on Jan. 30.

“We needed to find a quick solution so we depended on some ex-military special units,” said Falah al-Naqib, the Iraqi interior minister, told NBC News.

And in another departure from past practices, these units will also have the use of armored vehicles by Election Day, Jan. 30. Until now, only coalition troops have had heavy weapons to confront insurgents.

Al-Naqib, a Sunni, cited another danger: the possibility of a civil war if Iranian-backed Shiite candidates dominate the elections.

“If we have a government that does not represent all Iraqis, and we have a government work for other countries, not for Iraq … yes, we will have a civil war,” al-Naqib said.

U.N. upbeat on elections
Iraqi intelligence claims Iran now spends $250 million a month — in payments to Shiite parties, preachers and charities — to ensure that a pro-Iranian regime is elected.

“I do think it's possible to hold elections that are credible under such difficult circumstances,” Valenzuela said. The United Nations said more than 100,000 election workers have been hired, and more than 7,000 candidates are running.

3 candidates killed
But fresh violence proved the dangers to seeking office. Gunmen have killed three of those candidates, officials said Tuesday, as a suicide bombing killed three people outside the offices of a leading Shiite political party, in the second such attack in a month.

With insurgents trying to ruin the election, officials announced that Iraq will seal its borders, extend a curfew and restrict movement to protect voters during the balloting. President Bush spoke Tuesday morning with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the latest in a series of conversations between the two leaders on Iraq’s efforts to ensure maximum participation in the election.

Two of the slain candidates belonged to Allawi’s political coalition, the Iraqi National Accord, a member of the group said.

Alaa Hamid, who was running for the 275-member National Assembly, was shot dead Monday in the southern port city of Basra in front of his family, the official said on condition of anonymity. Hamid was also the deputy chairman of the Iraqi Olympic Committee in Basra.

Riad Radi, who was running in the local race for Basra’s provincial council on a list supported by Allawi’s INC, was killed Sunday when masked gunmen fired on his car as he was driving with his family, the official said.

Basra, a predominantly Shiite Muslim city, has been relatively calm in recent weeks, though insurgents fired four mortar rounds Sunday at schools slated to serve as polling centers.

In Baghdad on Monday, masked gunmen shot dead another candidate, Shaker Jabbar Sahla, a Shiite Muslim who was running in the National Assembly election for the Constitutional Monarchy Movement. The party is headed by Sharif Ali bin Hussein, a cousin of Iraq’s last king.

Sunnis increasingly targeting Shiites
Sunni Muslim militants, who make up the bulk of Iraq’s insurgency, are increasingly homing in on Shiites in their effort to ruin the election that is widely expected to propel their religious rivals to a position of dominance. Many Sunnis argue that security is precarious and the election should not take place under foreign occupation.

Tuesday’s suicide car bombing in Baghdad gouged a crater in the pavement, left several vehicles in flames and spread shredded debris on the street outside the offices of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a main contender in the election. The Shiite party, known as SCIRI, has close ties to Iran and is strongly opposed by Sunni Muslim militants.

The assailant told guards at a checkpoint leading to the party’s office that he was part of SCIRI’s security staff, and he detonated his bomb-laden car at the guard post when he was not allowed to enter.

Iraqi police officials reported the bomber and two others were dead and nine people were injured, including three police.

“SCIRI will not be frightened by such an act,” party spokesman Ridha Jawad said. “SCIRI will continue the march toward building Iraq, establishing justice and holding the elections.”

Borders to be closed
The Independent Electoral Commission announced that the country’s international borders would be closed from Jan. 29 until Jan. 31, except for Muslim pilgrims returning from the hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Iraqis also will be barred from traveling between provinces, and a nighttime curfew will be imposed during the same period, according to a statement from the commission’s Farid Ayar.

Such measures had been expected because of the grave security threat. U.S. and Iraqi authorities are hoping to encourage a substantial turnout but fear that if most Sunnis stay away from the polls, the legitimacy of the new government will be in doubt.

Iraq’s interior minister warned that if the country’s Sunni Arab minority bows to rebel threats and stays away from the polls, the nation could descend into civil war.

Al-Naqib, the interior minister, told reporters he expects Sunni insurgents to escalate attacks before the election, especially in the Baghdad area.

70,000 more troops promised
“If any group does not participate in the elections, it will constitute treason,” al-Naqib said, adding that “boycotting the elections will not produce a National Assembly that represents the Iraqi people” but will cause “a civil war that will divide the country.”

Allawi said he will boost the country’s armed forces with 70,000 more troops in an effort to take over more security tasks from U.S.-led forces. He said the forces would be “equipped with the most advanced weapons.”

Meanwhile, a Catholic archbishop kidnapped by gunmen in the northern city of Mosul was released Tuesday, a day after his abduction. The Vatican had called his abduction a “terrorist act.”

Other developments
A video surfaced Tuesday showing eight Chinese construction workers held hostage by gunmen claiming the men are employed by a company working with U.S. troops, in the latest abduction of foreigners in Iraq. China’s Foreign Ministry said it was “taking all measures to rescue the hostages,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Elsewhere, a third American died in fighting in Iraq’s troubled Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the military said Tuesday. Two others assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force also were killed in action there Monday.

The military gave no other details and it was unclear whether the three troops were killed in a suicide car bombing in the western city of Ramadi that U.S. officials said resulted in American casualties.

A court-martial prosecuting British soldiers, meanwhile, released photographs that apparently showed troops assaulting Iraqi prisoners and forcing them to simulate sex acts.

NBC News' Richard Engel, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Bush launches inaugural celebrationsPresident Bush launched his inaugural celebrations on Tuesday by thanking two groups that played major roles in his election to a second term — the military that prosecuted the war in Iraq and his most ardent and generous political supporters.

Iraq to close borders during electionA suicide bomber struck the Baghdad headquarters of Iraq's biggest Shiite political party Tuesday, killing three people, as the government announced plans to close borders and restrict movements to bolster security in the national election. Three candidates were slain as insurgents intensified their campaign to subvert the ballot.

Man faces charges in oil-for-food probeAn Iraqi-American businessman, accused of pocketing millions of dollars through the U.N. oil-for-food program with Iraq, pleaded guilty Tuesday to acting as an illegal agent of Saddam Hussein's government.

Bombing clouds Abbas' talks with militantsIn the biggest test of his brief tenure, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas came to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, hoping to persuade militants to halt attacks on Israel. But in a show of defiance, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a settler road in Gaza, killing an Israeli security agent and wounding seven other Israelis.

Man surrenders after making blast threatA man upset over custody of his child threatened to blow up his van a block from the White House on Tuesday, prompting a 4 1/2-hour standoff with police, authorities said.

Rice: U.S. was prepared for war in IraqWASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice gave no ground in Senate confirmation questioning Tuesday, insisting the United States was fully prepared for the Iraq war and its aftermath and refusing to give a timetable for U.S. troops to come home. Modesto Bee: Iraq

From the Department of Defense:Governor Optimistic About SecurityBAQUBAH, Iraq, Jan. 18, 2005 — The governor of Iraq's Diyala province is optimistic that security will be strong enough to hold elections here Jan. 30. "We're working with the police and the Iraqi army and with the coalition forces," said Abdullah Rashid during an interview in his office today. Story

Iraqis Hold Political Debate in BaqubahBAQUBAH, Iraq, Jan. 18, 2005 — It had none of the packaging that Americans have grown accustomed to in a presidential debate, but a debate here today for the upcoming election was fledgling democracy in action — Iraqi style. Story

Iraqi Police Station Renovations BeginTALLIL, Iraq, Jan. 18, 2005 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division, Southern District plans to help the Iraqi police perform its mission by renovating some 230 police stations in southern Iraq. Story

ON THE GROUNDAttack Jolts Complacency, Proves Beneficial KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Jan. 18, 2005 — A single gunshot shattered the early morning quiet Jan. 12. A few moments of silence followed, leading some to believe the shot was an accidental discharge. Then, a flurry of machine gun fire erupted from a nearby hill. This was an attack. Story

Afghan Villagers, Coalition Funds Build SchoolKUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Jan. 18, 2005 — Difficult terrain did not thwart the determined residents of a village here from building a first-rate school for area children. Thanks to Coalition Forces’ Asadabad Provincial Reconstruction Team funding and the determination of the residents, Qamchai village celebrated the grand opening of the first school in their region. Story

'Commandos' Tally One Million Completed CallsCAMP LIBERTY, BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 18, 2005 — Coalition forces have achieved several milestones in the last several months: removing Saddam Hussein from power, preparing for the country’s first democratic elections later this month and Company B, 10th Signal Battalion, 10th Mountain Division recording their one millionth completed call. Story